Who Will Build the Material Backbone of India’s Semiconductor Fabs? • @SCALE 2026 • Feb 4 • Mumbai
India’s first large-scale commercial fabs are going live in 2026-27, making the demand for specialty chemicals and materials a certainty. Yet, the ecosystem faces a critical "dependency trap"—relying fully on imports for the material backbone.
India is not starting from zero; we are already a global powerhouse in industrial chemicals.
In this deep-dive session, we ask: How do we pivot India’s existing 'Chemical Muscle' into 'Semiconductor Precision'?
We will debate the two-speed roadmap required to secure India's future:
The Sprint (3-5 Years): Structuring strategic Joint Ventures (JVs) where Indian conglomerates provide the infrastructure and global majors provide the IP.
The Marathon (10 Years): Seeding indigenous deep-tech startups today to bridge the "Validation Gap" and own the IP of tomorrow.
🌟Anchor Experts:
This session features a curated lineup of industry veterans to lead the dialogue, not deliver speeches. They bring candid, high-value framing to the conversation.
Raja Manickam | Founder, iVP Semiconductor
Ravi Bhatkal | Managing Director – India, MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions
Suraj Rengarajan | Principal Technologist - Applied Materials India
Anil Kalra | Chief Supply Chain & Operations - L&T Semiconductor Technologies
🧭Hosted & moderated by:
Karthik Varada | Beyond Next Ventures Inc.
🔖Who Should Attend:
This is a curated deep-dive discussion for:
The Adjacent Giants: R&D Heads from Indian Chemical, Paint, and Pharma conglomerates looking to pivot into electronic materials.
The Builders: Founders of deep-tech startups (Silicon ingots, speciality gases, photonics, etc.).
The Buyers: Procurement and Supply Chain leads from Fabs and OSATs.
The Backers: Investors, VCs and Family Offices with a thesis on hard-tech and manufacturing.
📍Where & When:
Date: February 4, 2026
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM IST
Venue: SCALE Pavilion at CHEMTECH Expo 2026 @ Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon (East), Mumbai.
Entry: Approval Required. Please request to join.
Bonus: Confirmed attendees will receive a Complimentary Day Pass to explore the wider SCALE 2026 and CHEMTECH expo.
About Beyond Next Ventures Inc.
Beyond Next Ventures Inc. is an early-stage deep-tech venture capital firm with presence in Japan and India. We are driven by our mission to enable exceptional entrepreneurs solving global challenges for healthier populace and a happier planet. Founded in 2014, we have made over 80 investments across both countries. We have a portfolio of 15 companies in India.
We focus on seed and pre-series A stage deep-tech startups, with ticket sizes ranging from $300,000 to $1.5 million. We typically co-lead investment rounds and are committed to providing follow-on funding to our portfolio companies in future rounds.
Website: https://beyondnextventures.com/
Portfolio: https://beyondnextventures.com/portfolio/
About SCALE 2026
SCALE is the dedicated innovation pavilion within CHEMTECH, focusing on the intersection of climate tech, material science, and biotech. It gathers the hardware and infrastructure builders scaling India's manufacturing capabilities from 1 to 100.
Presented by Spectrum Impact and ChemTECH, this platform is specifically curated for climate-tech founders to meet the industry leaders and investors who can move a solution into deployment.
What SCALE 2024 Delivered: → Scale 2024 Report
Website: https://scale-climate.org/
Spectrum Impact is a family office committed to solving large scale societal problems with novel solutions.
Questions?
Reach out to Aravind at [email protected]